The invention relates to a method for traffic distribution in a network realized using the ATM technology.
ATM is a new connection-oriented packet-switched technique, where the problems of traditional packet networks have been solved by employing short, fixed-size (53-byte) packets, called cells. Each cell consists of a 48-byte payload segment and a 5-byte header. However, the ATM technology is not described here in any greater detail, as the method of the invention does not require any special applications of the ATM technology. A detailed description of the ATM technology is available e.g. in references 1! and 2! (a list of references is at the end of the specification).
In an ATM network (as in other packet networks), connections may be secured by using one or more spare routes between the nodes, in addition to the main route. Thus, when necessary (e.g. during maintenance), traffic may be transferred from one route to another.